Many companies find that it is difficult to provide clear proof that peer code reviews are happening or have happened within their teams. Often time’s organizations that are preparing for an audit don’t have easy access to the data that they need to provide the auditors, whether they are internal or external to the organization. To make the process of gathering proof easier, Collaborator 9.3 introduces an “Archive to Zip” feature.

In addition to providing data for immediate auditing needs, many companies are required by government regulations to keep records of peer reviews for as long as their equipment is in service. Code review contents can be saved into a non-proprietary format, helping customers in regulated industries meet government regulations and internal policy requirements.

Conversations and comments can be easily tied back to the numbered push pins in the Diff viewer. The new “Archive to Zip” feature allows development, testing, and management teams to save code review contents in a zip file for long term data retention. In 5, 10, or 20 years, if an incident were to happen; the team can easily go back and check the numbered push-pins in the code reviews.

The Review Details report can now be saved in PDF format. It includes all of the information from the specific review including participant lists, metrics, and conversations that occurred during the review. Auditors take into account how long it takes a company to pull together all of the necessary files for the audit.

The Archive to Zip button can be found in the top right hand corner of the Review Summary screen. One benefit to the zip file is that reviews can easily be packaged and sent to an auditor without needing to give them access to Collaborator, which would require that the auditor know their way around the tool.

Once you click Save to Zip, all of the original material for the review in their original format (.doc, Excel, Java files, etc.) as well as the Review Details PDF will be saved to the zip file. The zip file format makes it easy for teams to locate specific reviews in the future as well as when it comes time to sending zip files to auditors.

The archive to zip feature helps to highlight how the review process and procedures are taken seriously within the company.

GitHub Integration

In addition to ‘Archive to Zip’ we have continued to expand upon our GitHub integration, which was introduced in Collaborator 9.2. In Collaborator 9.3, user names are automatically mapped between Collaborator and GitHub, provided that the user names are the same. If they are not identical, then users can be mapped manually via the users’ profile settings.